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Jason Rivera 10 Personal Facts, Biography, Wiki
Jason Rivera called Inwood home, and days after a shooting in Harlem claimed the 22-year-old officer’s life in Jan 2022, there is profound grief in the neighborhood as so many people remember the kid who always wanted to be a cop.
Flames flicker in a growing memorial in Manhattan, as prayers and disbelief come from family, friends and coworkers who are struggling to cope and comprehend the loss of Rivera.
“Like a family. I miss him a lot. I still don’t believe, I still don’t believe it,” said friend Jose Torres. “Everybody liked him. All the customers asked for him. On the phone, every time it rings, ‘I want to talk to Jason.'”
Torres fondly remembers working side-by-side with Rivera at Inwood Pharmacy when they were teenagers. A few years ago, coworkers surprised Rivera with a cake as he worked the register on his birthday.
Video showed the young man smiling and happy as everyone celebrated for him.
Torres said Rivera’s dream was always to be a cop, and even before he joined the NYPD, he was dedicated to a life of service.
“He used to go outside. The homeless people were hungry. He would go to the store and buy food for them,” Torres said.
When Rivera got the job and put on the uniform, he stopped by the pharmacy all the time.
“I was happy for him. He told me look see, dreams come true,” Torres said.
Jason Rivera 10 Pics, Photos, Pictures
Jason Rivera 10 Fast Facts, Biography, Wiki
On a cold, grey New York City day, thousands of officers lined Fifth Avenue to bid farewell to Jason Rivera, their brother in blue who was killed while responding to a domestic disturbance call in Harlem last week in Jan 2022.
Rivera and his wife, Dominique Luzuriaga, married in October. Now a widow, she struggled before a packed St. Patrick’s Cathedral as she recalled a quarrel they’d had the morning of the shooting.
Dominique Luzuriaga, the wife of fallen NYPD officer Jason Rivera, holds a flag from his casket during his funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on January 28, 2022, in New York City.
“You asked me if, ‘You are sure that you don’t want me to take you home, it might be the last ride I give you.’ I said, ‘No,’ and that was probably the biggest mistake I ever made,” Luzuriaga said in her eulogy.
Rivera, a 22-year-old rookie, was gunned down a week ago after a domestic disturbance call that also took the life of his partner, 27-year-old Wilbert Mora.
Luzuriaga recalled the moment she’d learned about the shooting.
“My heart dropped,” she said. “I immediately texted you and asked you, ‘Are you OK? Please tell me you’re OK.'”
Then came the phone call she had feared, and the heartbreak at Harlem Hospital.
“Nobody was telling me anything. Dozens of people were surrounding me, and yet I felt alone. I couldn’t believe you left me.”
Luzuriaga’s 10-minute eulogy was not only moving but defiant, bringing mourners to their feet after she addressed the newly elected Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, who critics have called “soft on crime,” as he sat among the dignitaries before her.